Signs Point to Mixed Holiday

At press time, the industry was in the midst of the Christmas selling season, and it was too early to get a full read on it. But there were some early indicators, mostly positive:

MasterCard‘s SpendingPulse said jewelry sales were up 4.6 percent in November.

The Jewelry Consumer Opinion Council said 22 percent of panelists purchased jewelry in the first days of the holiday season versus 14 percent last year.

According to the National Retail Federation, 11.7 percent of shoppers bought jewelry or precious metal accessories on Black Friday versus 10.9 percent last year.

Zale Corp. announced same store sales dropped 18.6 percent in November, a disappointing number.Blue Nile CEO Diane Irvine said her company had its “best Cyber Monday ever” as well as a strong Black Friday. And Coremetrics found that online jewelry retailers had a 14.3 percent jump in sales over last year’s Cyber Monday figures.